LMU needs interculturalism

Kellyn Kawaguchi

The next time you walk into a room, I want you to notice how many people are the same ethnicity as you. Chances are, if you’re white, you’re part of the majority. While this observation shouldn’t make a difference, it affects the 51 percent of students who make up the non-white portion of LMU.

A video featuring a spoken word poem by UCLA student Sy Stokes has been circulating around the Internet lately. In the powerful statement, Stokes openly criticizes UCLA’s diversity record and points out that only 3.3 percent of the school’s population identifies as African-American male students. Out of that small percent, 65 percent of those students are athletes.

The video has shocked thousands with its message about the underrepresentation of minorities at the school. Meanwhile, I was unsurprised. Stokes popularized a conversation that needed to be a long time ago. I, like so many other non-white students, was already used to facts like the ones he presented.

A lack of intercultural diversity has been an issue for decades. On this campus, I’m one of the 10.5 percent of undergraduate students who identify as Asian, according to the 2013-2014 “LMU at a Glance” card. Statistically, I’m an ethnic minority.

Yet personally, it’s the lack of interculturalism, not ethnic diversity, that has been an issue for me ever since I arrived on LMU’s campus.

I once participated in a facilitated discussion on the lack of interculturalism on our campus. During an activity, a group of students presented the existence of “culture cliques” as an issue. Their definition of culture cliques, referred to the numerous cultural organizations here at LMU.

These students believed that these organizations caused students of the same culture to become less involved with the rest of LMU, that they limited whom their members interacted with and were exclusive to others.

More ‘cons’ were listed than the single ‘pro’ that simply stated: cultural organizations provide students with a sense of belonging.

While cultural organizations do provide that familiar camaraderie found in any group on campus, they serve a purpose far more important than just providing a basic acceptance into a community. Cultural orgs are different. And this difference makes them a crucial addition to any college campus. Without these orgs, we would fail to recognize the unique traits that actually make LMU intercultural and diverse.

The beautiful thing about culture is that it isn’t limited to ethnicity. It extends to any sort of lifestyle; whether that’s being a part of the LGBT community or doing weekly service. The definition is fluid and can be molded to describe anyone’s way of living—the term itself is welcoming.

In fact, the cultural clubs on this campus do not serve to promote a certain ethnicity or culture above another. They exist for the sole purpose of celebrating diversity. And there’s nothing limiting about that.

I absolutely adore LMU for hundreds of reasonse – one of those being the incredible amount of support that students involved in the intercultural community show each other, another reason being the various educational programs offered through the Ethnic and Intercultural Services Office that promote diversity.

I’m proud to be a part of a community where students make efforts to express their passions through sharing their cultures with others. And while I’m proud that our campus has offices dedicated to educating students on interculturalism, we can’t stop here. The truth is, our campus definitely has the means to be intercultural. But that starts with us as students and they way we approach the issue.

Let’s get back to those students and their coining of the problematic term “culture clique.” Do I think any less of them? Not at all. But here’s to hoping that I can help them, and others who share their beliefs, to think about cultural organizations from an insider’s perspective.

Sometimes change simply starts with a conversation.

Source: The Los Angeles Loyolan

Posted in: Intercultural Encounters, Los Angeles